The Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU has scheduled a negotiation meeting between EU institutions on 11 May on the most contentious issues of the future regulation on the strategic plans of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), including ‘green architecture’ and the targeting of direct aid.
Indeed, during the trilogue on Friday 30 April, little progress was made in the negotiations on the green architecture of the CAP (eco-regimes and good agricultural and environmental conditions, or GAEC) and the targeting of aid (capping and degressivity of aid, redistributive payment). However, the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council remains confident that a final agreement on the three CAP reform texts can be reached by the end of May (see EUROPE 12706/1).
On the percentage of eco-schemes, the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council has planned to increase from 22% of direct payments in 2023 to 25% in 2025. The European Parliament was not in a position to say at this stage whether it would accept this offer.
Progress on the strategic plans at the 30 April trilogue included: – the acceptance by the EU Council to extend eco-regimes to animal welfare; – each eco-scheme set up should cover two action lines (e.g., climate change and biodiversity). Furthermore, Parliament proposed a points system intended to be compulsory (but there was no agreement on this point); – agreement in principle on the role of the regions in the strategic plans (one strategic plan per Member State, but taking the regions into account in the management).
Regarding the GAECs, an agreement in principle has been reached on GAEC 2 (grasslands). No agreement has yet been reached on GAEC 4 (peatlands, etc.). On GAECs 8 (crop diversification and rotation) and 9 (areas of ecological interest), a derogation has been proposed by the Portuguese Presidency for small farms (10 hectares). The European Parliament and the Commission are asking for 5 hectares. On GAEC 9, there was reportedly an offer to provide for the 10% of areas of ecological interest, 4% of non-productive areas and 2% of productive areas. But there was no compromise between the institutions on this point.
As regards the targeting of aid, Parliament has reportedly suggested that 6% of aid should be devoted to redistributive payments. Provisions would be made whereby: – or 6% of the aid is added to the distributional payment (i.e., a total of 12%) and, in this case, there would no longer be any obligation under capping and degressivity; – or the level would be maintained at 6%, in which case 6% of aid would have to be allocated to capping or degressivity.
But some sources express doubts about the acceptance of these ideas in the EU Council. The EU Council requests that these three instruments (capping, degressivity, and redistributive payment) remain optional.
On the Common Market Organisation (CMO) regulation, a new trilogue will take place on 12 May (and possibly another on 21 May) to try to make progress in the negotiations. The rapporteur, Eric Andrieu (S&D, France), asked to set aside an extra day to complete negotiations on the CMO regulation. But the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council prefers “a collective discussion on the three regulations”, explained an EU diplomat.
On the third text, the horizontal regulation, the only remaining issue would be the amount of the agricultural crisis reserve: the EU Council retained the amount foreseen by the European Council, i.e., around €450 million in current prices at the beginning of each year for the period 2021-2027, while Parliament is trying to increase the amount.
Timetable. The Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) will discuss on 10 May the strategic plans (e.g., flexibilities on eco-regimes), the CMO and social cross-compliance (Parliament document on this topic, see EUROPE 12707/14).
A new ‘super trilogue’ will take place over three days from 25-27 May to reach a final agreement on the future CAP. A two-day Agriculture Council will take place on 26-27 May, in particular to take stock of the dossier and validate the compromises reached on the CAP. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)